Busy Weekend

Hi!  It's already Thursday here, but I wanted to tell you about our busy last weekend and this is the first chance that I've had.  In the Expat community something is always going on.  This past weekend seemed extra busy.  Expats are usually assigned to a location for only 3 or 4 years, so people are always coming and going which means there are always going away parties.  Friday night one of the girls who used to be on our Outpost team had a going away party at our local Zima 3 bar so we went there for a bit.

Saturday morning Max and I ran a few errands including a quick trip to his office.  He took me to lunch at a newly renovated Korean restaurant that is across the street from his office.  See if you can spot the restaurant.

Here's a close up of the entrance.  This is very typical in Russia....nice restaurants are located in out of the way places, tucked away in basement's, etc. 

Saturday evening we got dressed up for a big fundraising Gala for the House of Grace and Hope.  The House of Grace and Hope was started by a couple who left Australia in 2005 with their 3 children, moved to Sakhalin and decided to care for older orphans.  They have a 5 room apartment and at any time have 16 to 20 kids living there.  They are trying to buy property to build a house or an older house.  The Gala was one way to raise money towards the house and towards their day to day expenses.  They are a lovely couple and have sacrificed so much to do what they do.  The Gala was a lot of fun.

Sunday afternoon we went to a reception for the American Consul General whose office is in Vladivostok.  All the Americans who are in Yuzhno were invited to attend.  It was interesting to meet the Consul General.  A representative from the Embassy in Moscow was there, too.  After the reception I went home and finally registered on their website so they we are in their district and to get their newsletter.

That evening Max's boss was having a buffet dinner so we went there for that.  Whew!  What a busy but fun weekend.

Love to you all!
Karen

New Outpost Office

Hi all!  Now that I've finally finished posting about our wonderful Vietnam trip, I'm hoping to write more about my everyday life here on Sakhalin.  Although, after being here for almost a year, everyday life here is starting to seem somewhat normal.  I hope I can find things to tell you about that will be interesting.  Life here is sort of what you make of it and I've made mine extremely busy.

Yesterday was Wednesday and I had Outpost Office duty.  I've blogged about out our Sakhalin Outpost Office before.  You can read about it *here*.  Outpost Office duty means that it is my turn to work in the office during office open hours, which is only once a week on Wednesday 10:30 to 12:00.  We have 9 members on our Outpost team right now and each Wednesday morning we rotate either working in the office or being the Outpost Office representative for Coffee Morning, which is a weekly gathering of residents for cofee and chatting and occurs at the same time as the Outpost Office open time.  I usually have duty for one or the other about once a month, but as the Outpost "Focal Point", I work in the office A LOT more than that.

A couple of months ago, we completely redid the office and it is really nice now.  Before, there was a desk right when you walked into the office and the books were locked away in a cabinet and no one could even see that we had all sorts of travel books and Expat related self help books.  Now, the office is divided into 3 areas.  The first area is a nice sitting area with a couch and chairs.  We've started having more meetings and gatherings here, although it is a bit small for a more than about 8 people. Next is the library area, with open bookshelves and a table and chairs.  Finally, toward the back is the office area with the desk, computer, file cabinets, etc.  I think it's a huge improvement and is so nice and much more welcoming now.

Here are a few photos of the new office.  This first one is of the sitting area taken looking back towards the first part of the office as you walk in.  The door is on the left behind the bookshelf.

This photo is taken standing in front of the white chairs in the above photo looking to the back of the room.

Next is a better shot of the library shelves.  We have 4 shelves (two rows of two shelves back to back).  I bought 36 of these black bins to put all of the travel brochures in.  Before the brochures were in these tacky blue boxes.  I need more bins and hopefully the store will get some in soon.  Everything takes longer here.

 

This last one is a better shot of the desk / office area.  I'm so excited to hopefully be getting a new(er) printer soon.  It will be a laser and will have to sit on the floor, probably in front of the desk.

 

I'm enjoying being a part of Outpost although it's a much bigger job than I realized when I took it on.    It's like a small business with a budget, meetings with HR representatives, team meetings, reports, monthly newsletters, planning events, etc.  It's fun and I've certainly learned a lot!

Love to you all!

Karen

Vietnam Trip Day 10

This day was our last day in Vietnam.  The whole trip I was fascinated by how many motorbikes there were and I was always trying to take a photo of them.  Our guide told us that our route this morning took us through a busy traffic area, especially since we left so early.  I tried to get a few good photos, but it is still so hard to really tell just how many motorbikes there were.  I never really got any photos of some of the crazy things people carried on their motorbikes like 15 ft steel beams, boxes and boxes of things, 4 or 5 people, etc.  It was crazy.

This morning we were on our way to the Cu Chi tunnels.  These tunnels were used in the Vietnam war by the Viet Cong and were part of a huge network of tunnels in Vietnam.  There were living quarters, hospitals, kitchens for cooking.....people stayed down there for a very long time.  They were very small as the Vietnamese people are small.  When we first arrived we were given sort of an overview of the tunnel and shown a very anit-American propaganda movie.  This photo is a model of just a segment of the tunnel system.

Here is a photo of one of the tunnel guides showing us one of the actual hidden entrances into the tunnel. It's crazy small:

Here's a photo of another opening.  Of course at the time the openings were hidden by brush, etc.

There was an opening that larger Western tourists could go in and could crawl to another opening.  Max did this, but I didn't.  I had eaten at an Indian restaurant the night before and something did not settle well with me and I wasn't feeling my best that day.  The entire trip we had eaten street food, fresh veggies, etc.  All the things you hear that you should be careful about - and I had no problems.  The last day, I eat in a big city restaurant and get a little ill.  It slowed me down a bit, but not too much.

The Viet Cong had some crazy and viscous traps that they set.

One thing Max really enjoyed was having the chance to shoot an AK47.  Being in the military, he had shot almost all types of weapons but never this one.  He was psyched and was actually a pretty got shot!!

After the Cu Chi tunnels, it was time to start heading to the airport for our journey back to our Sakhalin Island home.  Of course on the way we stopped at one last temple.  Max called it a generic Buddhist temple.  It was some strange mixture of Buddhist, Hindu, Confusion ism and some other religions.  There was also something about snake (worship) as there were a lot of snakes in their statues.  I think it was a religion that is not real widespread and may be in decline.  Most of the participants were older people.  It was really interesting to see the service and to listen to the music.

Now here we are at the airport waiting for our flight from Ho Chi Minh City in the south of Vietnam back to Hanoi in the north and then our flight back to Sakhalin. 

It was a fabulous trip.

Love to you all!
Karen

Vietnam Trip Day 9

Day 9 was a trip to the Mekong Delta.  It was about a 2.5 hour drive from our hotel in Ho Chi Minh City to Cai Be.  We had a chartered boat that took us for a river cruise on the Mekong Delta.  The larger boat took us to a place where we transferred to a smaller boat for a cruise through small back waterways where I think boats are the only way to reach some of these homes.  Here are a few photos of sights from the back waterways.

Here's me on the river.  We didn't bring a hat with us, so we had to buy a sun hat.

Once back on the main river, we saw the Cai Be floating market. When we were first told we were going to a floating market I imagined going up to some huge floating barge, getting out and walking around to different stalls.  No....the actual market is made of a bunch of boats each selling different produce.  The produce that each boat has for sale is hung on a pole in the front of the boat so that customers can see what each boat has to offer from afar.  We were told that this market is generations old.

This is a photo of a group of some of the boats.  The first one is a little far away, but you can see the poles sticking up from the front of each boat.

Next stop was to a cottage factory where locals make pop-rice, rice paper and coconut candy.  It was so interesting to see how they did it.  Were were told that they burned the rice hulls for the fire used for heating and cooking.  First, we watched a lady make rice paper.

Next was pop rice.  They guy would cook the rice until it popped out of the skins and then would sift the popped rice.  It would then be mixed with something that held it together and poured into a mold, cut into squares and packaged for sale.

Next was coconut candy making.

They also made this homemade Vodka-like drink with some kind of snake in it.  It's supposed to be good for you for some reason that I can't remember now.  Here is a photo of our guide getting us each a little taste.

 

Next up - Lunch!!  We got back on the boat and went to Dong Hoa Hiep Island where we walked a ways to a really nice restaurant for lunch.  Our lunch consisted of many courses.  Here was one of our favorites.

It was great to get a perspective of things from walking instead of from a boat.  Here is someone's home.  Makes you feel pretty blessed with the home you have.

I'm pretty sure cock fighting is illegal in Vietnam, too, but I think they still do it.  Some things are the same the world over.

Then it was back on the boat.  I was amazed at how every house and even how every boat had a television antenna.

  

Finally back to shore where we had a long drive back to our hotel.  It was a great day!

Love to you all!

Karen

Vietnam Trip Day 8

Day 8 started out with a flight from Hue to Ho Chi Minh City which is in the southern part of the country.  Ho Chi Minh is a huge city of around 10 million people with about 4 million motor scooters.  It is more modern than Hanoi and it seemed like there was a coffee shop on every corner. The locals still call the city Saigon.

The day we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City was a holiday in Vietnam, so some of the places we were supposed to visit were closed.  Our first stop was called Lady Bird Temple.  It was yet another of the many Buddhist temples that we saw.  Beautiful architectural detail.

 
In this temple you could pay some money and have an incense spiral burned for one of your family members.  (Remember that Buddhists worship deceased family members.)

After lunch we visited the former Presidential Palace.  This place was significant in that at the very end of the Vietnam War (the Vietnamese called it the American War) tanks drove through the gates and onto the lawn of this palace.  We saw one of the actual tanks when we were at a museum in Hanoi, although we didn't know it at the time.  Our guide told us the tank numbers and I remembered that I had taken a picture of Max in front of a tank at the museum and it turned out to be one of the exact ones our guide told us about.  Here is a picture of the Presidential Palace:

The inside of the Palace wasn't really that impressive. It looked to me like a typical 1960's era building...similar to the architecture of the buildings at NASA.

Max was really interested in the radios that they had in the building:

After the Presidential Palace, we went to a local market in Ho Chi Minh City:

Day 8 was rather short due to our flying for part of the day and that many of the things we were supposed to see were closed.  That was okay with us as we were quite tired and enjoyed a nice rest at the hotel.

Love to you all,
Karen